Starved Men

From The Fifth City Wiki

"There are some things we were not meant to know, they say. But you wouldn't be down here if you took that seriously."

Beyond this point lie spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, or Mask of the Rose. This may include midgame or minor Fate-locked content. Proceed with caution.

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"The outside is full of the most deplorable shapes; limbs grown overlong or reduced to inoperable stumps; joints fused or bending as they aren't meant to bend."

The Starved Men are people who practice the Shapeling Arts, passed down from the Flukes, to change themselves.

They Warp and Twist

File:Roof.png
The roof of the Neath. Art from FL

Through the application of the Shapeling Arts and melted amber, they reshape and elongate their flesh to their own will: fusing or bending joints, stretching fingers, flattening jaws. This process takes a considerable amount of time and is notably painful and yet pleasurable, pushing the Starved Men's bodies to their very limits.

They live up on the Neath's roof, inhabiting some of the large stalactites inside which they've carved tunnels and rooms. For transportation between them, they use smaller, gas-filled balloons, rather than the large dirigibles used by Mr Fires and his minions. They constantly fight among themselves for sustenance and use contemporary weapons such as cannons and rifles.

One of the most important to them places is the Citadel of the Static Star; instead of a rock formation, however, it is a living creature they inhabit - the original moon-miser, the Moon-Mother.


Godfall

"The brawling bearded men who live here call themselves monks. They pay lip service to 'St Stalactite', which fell from the roof. But their chief interests seem to be wine, blood and shouting."

Godfall is a stalactite from the roof of the Neath that crashed into the Zee because of a battle between warrior monks on the roof. The monks who lived in the stalactite (perhaps related to the warrior nuns of Abbey Rock) took the name "the Starved Men." The survivors, not of the Starved Men, but of the group attacking them, repopulated, despite a vow of celibacy. These monks are basically a bunch of pirates, they spend more time acting like Vikings than actual monks. The Starved Men lived in the Shattered Citadel - yes, that's in the past tense. It's still a bad idea to enter.

Deep in the chapel there is evidence of shape-changing - elongated human skulls, the tools used to elongate them, and large quantities of amber. Farther in, the gates seem to be made of men, and it's impossible to tell if they were sculpted or molded...